Regal is preparing to shut 39 more U.S. theaters, including 4 in Southern California and 7 within the Bay Area, after parent company Cineworld announced it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September.
The most recent list comes on the heels of dozens of other theaters which have already been shuttered, including Anaheim Hills 14, Calabasas Stadium 6 and the Westpark 8 theater in Irvine.
The most recent announced Southern California closures:
- Metro Point Costa Mesa
- Hemet Cinema 12, Hemet
- Sherman Oaks Galleria 16, Los Angeles
- Yorda Linda and Imax theater, Yorba Linda
Additional theaters are set to shut in Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, North Carolina, Nebraska, Latest Hampshire, Latest Jersey, Latest Mexico, Nevada, Latest York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington and Washington, D.C.
Cineworld detailed the plan to reject the 39 leases starting February 15 in a latest bankruptcy filing on Tuesday. Regal is the second-largest cinema chain within the US, behind AMC, with greater than 500 theaters.
Cineworld said the lease rejections will help the corporate save about $22 million a 12 months while it continues to work with landlords to maintain other theaters in operation.
“The debtors are hopeful that these negotiations will result in lease concessions and modifications that can obviate the necessity for rejection and enable additional theater sites to stay open,” Cineworld said in its court filing.
Cineworld’s bankruptcy filing got here because the theatrical industry was struggling to get well from fallout related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Theater revenues in North America hit reached $7.4 billion in 2022, based on Comscore, down from greater than $11 billion in 2019 and 2018.
Movie theaters have faced a bunch of challenges in recent times from Netflix, big-screen home TVs and the pandemic. The issue has been exascerbated by “a shortage of of massive movies to point out within the months ahead,” based on the Latest York Times.
